Retail transitions in Southeast Asia

This special issue explores multi-dimensional retail transitions in Southeast Asia against the backdrop of the ongoing globalization of retail capital. As an introduction to the special issue, this paper does three things. First, it introduces the rationale for, and wider context to, the special issue. Second, it offers a contemporary snapshot of the leading retail markets in Southeast Asia in order to highlight the considerable national variation in market conditions that exists, and thereby to situate the papers that follow. Third, it reviews the existing literature on retail transformations in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on three areas: deregulation and reregulation with respect to retailing, competitive impacts of foreign retailers on domestic firms, and the supply network impacts of inward investment in retailing. The paper concludes by outlining a brief research agenda for work on retail transitions in Southeast Asia.     

MALAYSIA Hidden Paradise of Southeast Asia

Remaining as one of the most pleasant and hassle-free countries in Southeast Asia, Malaysia attracts a huge number of tourists from around the world every year due to its splendid tropical beach resorts,golden sandy beaches, magnificent rainforests pluralist culture and brilliant shopping bargains.     

Determinants of Export Performance in East and Southeast Asia

This paper examines the determinants of exports in eight East and Southeast Asian economies, with an emphasis on the increasing importance of parts and components in total exports. To see whether exports in parts and components are ‘special’ and to allow comparisons, export equations are estimated for three different export categories: total merchandise exports, manufacturing exports and exports of machinery and transport equipment (SITC 7). The analysis is based on data for 1993–2008, a period over which parts and components trade burgeoned. The estimations indicate that the growing importance in the export composition of parts and components within vertically integrated cross‐border production processes has tended to weaken the nexus of real exchange rate and export performance. World demand and supply‐side factors, including foreign direct investment, tend to become more crucial in determining export performance.     

Trade Policies in Southeast Asia in the Wider Asian Perspective

This paper takes stock of trade policies in Southeast Asia after the Asian crisis and in the wake of the current global economic crisis. It compares trade policies in individual Southeast Asian countries; places them in the context of regional and global economic integration; and particularly draws implications for the region from the rise of China and India. The first section looks at recent trade and FDI patterns in Southeast Asia. Then follows an overview of key trade‐policy trends, in the region overall and in individual countries. The next sections examine ASEAN countries in international trade negotiations and agreements: first in the WTO, especially in the Doha Round; then within ASEAN; and finally on cross‐regional FTAs. The paper concludes that ASEAN countries cannot rely on external tracks ‘from above’ for meaningful trade policy reform. Since the Asian crisis there has been a slowdown of reform momentum, and too much reliance on trade negotiations – especially FTAs. Rather, countries in the region have to rely on themselves –‘from below’ as it were. The engine of liberalisation and regulatory reform has to be home‐driven – as it was before the Asian crisis – with governments taking unilateral measures in response to internal and external conditions.     

Markov switching GARCH models of currency turmoil in Southeast Asia

This paper analyzes exchange rate turmoil with a Markov switching GARCH model. We distinguish between two different regimes in both the conditional mean and the conditional variance: “ordinary” regime, characterized by low exchange rate changes and low volatility, and “turbulent” regime, characterized by high exchange rate devaluation and high volatility. We also allow the transition probabilities to vary over time as functions of economic and financial indicators. We find that real effective exchange rates, money supply relative to reserves, stock index returns, and bank stock index returns and volatility contain valuable information for identifying turbulent and ordinary periods.     

东盟维护地区安全的特点

为了应对内外安全的挑战,东盟自成立以来逐步创建了一条维护地区安全的范式,其特点主要表现在:在总体原则上,强调维护地区安全的政治手段;在具体方式上,强调维护地区安全的综合手段;在危机处理上,强调自主和平解决争端.     

借鉴东南亚经验开发我国旅游购物品

目前我国旅游业迅猛发展 ,取得了举世瞩目的成就 ,但旅游购物一直是我国旅游业发展的薄弱环节 ,旅游购物品的创汇收入占旅游外汇总收入的比重一直徘徊在 2 0 %左右 ,与旅游业发达国家的 5 0 % -60 %相比差距明显 ,这严重阻碍了我国旅游业进一步向广度、深度扩展。如何借鉴国外发展旅游购物品成功经验开发我国旅游购物品已成为亟待解决的问题。     

Privatization in Africa

The state-owned enterprise has become synonymous with governance in Africa. However performance of these enterprises and national economies as a whole has been extremely disappointing. As African governments become more hard pressed to fund national budgets, privatization has gathered momentum as the solution to effect economic adjustment and mobilize sorely needed investment capital. Drum focuses on the privatization programs of Nigeria, Senegal and Togo in his attempt to determine what works and what does not.     

Cultural Immersion Trip to Southeast Asia: A Study of Cross-Cultural Intelligence

ABSTRACT

The primary purpose of this article is to demonstrate the execution of a successful short- term study trip to Southeast Asia and its influence on a student’s cultural intelligence. This article discusses an academic component of an international study trip that was developed for sophomores at a private university in the New England region of the United States. In an attempt to internationalize, the university led students on a 2-week international trip to Malaysia and Singapore known as the Sophomore International Experience. The authors have developed a model that combines an academically rigorous curriculum that juxtaposes domestic events/experiences with those of the foreign country and propose that the trip gives students first- hand international experience that prepares them to develop a global perception. The article evaluates the validity of the proposed theory with the help of the Cultural Intelligence Scale that measures significance improvements in cultural intelligence after taking the trip.     

诺而达汽车热交换器材料(上海)有限公司落户上海辐射东南亚

近日，在上海外高桥保税区富特北路的厂区内，诺而达汽车热交换器材料（上海）有限公司举行了隆重的剪彩和挂牌仪式。诺而达全球CE0及总裁John PeterLeesi先生，诺而达铜带公司总裁Staffan Anger先生，外高桥保税区领导，瑞典驻沪领事馆和商会代表，以及来自国内和日本、韩国、泰国、新加坡、印尼、香港等国家和地区的逾百名相关行业嘉宾共同参加了本次的开业庆典。正如新公司总裁Gert Lundmark先生在开业典礼上所言：新公司的开业是诺而达在中国以及整个亚太地区市场战略中迈出的重要一步。     

Legal distance and entrepreneurial orientation of foreign subsidiaries: Evidence from Southeast Asia

How will variation in legal distance influence a foreign subsidiary's propensity to engage in entrepreneurially orientated initiatives within the context of an emerging market environment? We answer this question by combining elements of institutional theory to suggest that legal distance between a foreign subsidiary's parent home and host country, as well as managerial perceptions of deficiencies in the host country legal service sector, will influence EO initiatives. By analyzing 352 multinational enterprise foreign subsidiaries operating in the Philippines and Thailand our results indicate the complexity of these relationships in that there is a curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship concerning the legal distance between a foreign subsidiary's parent home and host country and its propensity to engage in EO initiatives. Our findings also suggest that this curvilinear relationship will strengthen as managerial perceptions of host country legal deficiencies increase, particularly when the parent possess an in-house legal affairs department. Following these insights, we discuss theoretical implications and future research opportunities.     

交互投资:东南亚区域经济合作的现实选择

建立在西方区域经济一体化实践上的区域经济一体化理论,其根本前提是发达国家的经济制度都是发达的或比较发达的市场经济,它们的经济一体化可以通过一定的国际协定和组织形式为框架来进行,表现为制度性一体化.但是,东南亚大部分国家的市场化程度低,各国间存在多方面的矛盾.目前,交互投资可以成为东南亚区域经济合作的现实选择,以通过非制度性的合作逐步过渡到制度性的区域经济合作.     

Human resource management in multinational and domestic enterprises: A comparative institutional analysis in Southeast Asia

This article looks at the relative impact of context on the role of senior managers. It compares HR directors of domestic enterprises (DEs) with those of multinational enterprises (MNEs), within an emerging market setting, based on a survey of HR directors in Brunei. We found that, with the exception of some aspects of selection and recruitment, HR directors of MNEs accorded a higher priority to strategic tasks but were more reluctant to delegate. This study confirms the importance of MNEs in pioneering more modern and integrated approaches to people management but also demonstrates the limitations to the extent where they might act as evangelists of new practices that are adopted by their local peers. In contrast, local firms were more likely to concentrate their attention on administrative, rather than strategic, issues. We draw out the implications of our findings for theory and practice.     

Privatization in the Czech Republic

Inexorably, privatization is rolling through Central and Eastern Europe, generally following two paths: a slow, deliberate pace or a rapid transformation. Each method has its advantages and advocates. But one nation, the Czech Republic, has taken a modified path that combines both approaches. Sacks examines the Czech privatization process through the government's policy goals, its successes, and the problems it has encountered in its privatization push.     

China’s Growing Influence in Southeast Asia – Monetary Policy and Equity Markets

This study analyses the potential transmission of China’s monetary policy shocks to equity markets in Southeast Asia. Impulse response functions indicate that the impact of a monetary expansion in China is significant and positive for four of the five Southeast Asian equity markets. One explanation for this result is that monetary policy shocks in China lead to an increase in demand for goods and services in both China and abroad, which then shows up in the foreign equity market. The results in this paper provide evidence of China’s influence in Southeast Asia and its financial markets. The transmission effect is small and very short lived, but can be expected to increase if the current trends of a deepening economic integration between China and Southeast Asia and a maturing Chinese central bank continue.     

Retail networks and real estate: the case of Swiss luxury watches in China and Southeast Asia

Shopping centers are among the most significant places to sell luxury goods in East Asia. However, the relations between retail networks of luxury companies and access to land and real estate still need to be addressed. On the one hand, an extensive literature highlights how the turn to luxury industry since the 1990s has enabled some European countries to maintain their comparative advantage on the global market and at the same time to keep a significant part of their production non-globalized. Yet, an issue that remains to be addressed is the way European luxury companies are able to enter and expand their sales networks in emerging countries. On the other hand, while real estate has become a major economic circuit in East Asia, there is still a lack of research about the property industry and companies’ concrete strategies and business models. This article is hence an exploratory study that tackles the issue of real estate within the strategies of the main actors of the Swiss watch industry, namely Swatch Group, Richemont, and LVMH, which have massively invested in their retail network in China and East Asia since the 1990s.